The present invention relates to a cardio assist system suitable for use in medical care of intractable cardiac failure, and also to an insertion device therefor. More particularly, the invention is concerned with the cardio assist system and the insertion device which are always ready for use and highly effective even in cases of emergency.
In recent years, there is a remarkable progress in the field of cardiac surgery and, nowadays, various cardiac diseases which hitherto have been difficult to cure are becoming curable. It is considered that current studies and development in assisted circulation systems, which function in place of failed hearts so as to maintain peripheral circulation and promote recovery of the cardiac function, have made a great contribution to the improvement in the effect of the surgery.
Assisted circulation methods presently available can be sorted into several types: namely, intra-aortic balloon pumping (abbreviated as "IABP"hereinafter), veno-arterial bypass (abbreviated as "VAB"), and left heart bypass which utilizes a ventricular assist device (abbreviated as "VAD").
These known methods, however, have at least one critical shortcoming when considered from the view points of the treatment effect, operability, surgical stress, adaptability to emergency cases and availability of equipment. Thus, the known methods are still unsatisfactory when a patient having an intractable cardiac failure and, hence, requiring very quick treatment is considered. In other words, no method has been proposed which would satisfy all the requirements of elimination of necessity for special equipment, ease and quickness of application in the event of an emergency, minimal surgical procedure and strong assisted circulation.
For instance, IABP does not always provide a good effect when applied to a serious failure such as cardiogenic shock, although it is used widely. VAB also is disadvantageous in that it cannot provide satisfactory assisting effect for the left heart. VAD requires a special equipment and an open-chest operation has to be conducted for installation, thus, failing to cope with an emergency case.
Patients often die due to inferior prognosis caused by a delay in the treatment, even when these methods are fully applied. In some cases, the required assisted circulation cannot be conducted due to unavailability of equipment. Thus, it is a matter of significance to establish a technique which would save the lives of patients which have suffered from such serious diseases.
One of methods which would avert death of patient having intractable cardiac failure is to apply a strong assisted circulation as soon as possible. Thus, it will be a matter of great significance to provide an assisted circulation system which is easy to apply and operate and which is installed by minimal surgical procedure.